BENGALURU: Wanphrang K Diengdoh is an award winning filmmaker from Shillong whose works have deeply explored the issue of tribal identity. A recipient of many awards and fellowships, Wanphrang was in the city a few days ago to screen and talk about his latest film, Because We Did Not Choose, that tries to retrace the steps of tribal labourers from the Northeast who participated in World War II.
“It all started as a child growing up in Shillong and visiting the local traditional market known as Iewduh, where a French monument called Motphran is located. There was not much information about the monument or about the names of the people mentioned on the monument. We studied the WW1 in school but the history books never talked about the participation of the people from the area,” says Wanphrang in an interaction with CE.
In 2014 while working on a documentary film, Wanphrang got material for his latest film. He realized that the bulk of regional vernacular literature was published during the early 1900. “It was a time when indigenous identity was negotiating itself with modernity. The industrial revolution had happened, Chartism paved rights for labourers, Welsh missionaries were bringing Calvinistic Methodism to the hills, Christianity was re-defining the identity of the indigenous communities and then of course the WW1 broke out and saw the largest movement of labourers from the area till date,” he adds.
Despite all such upheavals, this entire history of movement was not documented and is almost obliterated from local memories. Not much much exists in written form since the literacy rate among the labourers was very low. Wanphrang traveled to various parts of his home state of Meghalaya, India, England, France and Wales and met the family members of those who went to the war and joined together bits and pieces of information of that era. He accessed whatever little sources such as field note books, journals as well as objects brought back from the war. Testimonies from family members were recorded, songs that were sung then were re-performed and graves of the labourers were visited.
“You could say that it was a film that needed to be made to further engage in dialogue and examine the event and the impact it has contemporary society,” he says, while adding that he makes films not only for or about the Northeast. “In fact, I do not want to be merely identified as a NE film maker and it is precisely for this reason that the films I have made resonate equally well with the rest of the country and elsewhere.”
Wanphrang, who single handedly researched, scripted, directed, shot and edited the film took four years to complete it. He is also a member of a politico-punk band called Tarik that has provided music for the film.
Awards
Wanphrang’s short fiction film, 19/87 won several awards at the Guwahati International Short Film Festival (GISFF) in 2011. Another film, My Name Is Eeooow, co-written and edited by him won the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Ethnographic Film Festival in the UK this year.